Tuesday, September 09, 2014

Why Are Cops Shooting So Many Mentally Ill People?


According to the Portland Press Herald, 375 of the 500 people killed by police in 2012 had a mental disability. 

Since 2000, 42 percent of people shot by cops—including 58 percent of those who died from their injuries—in the state of Maine had a mental health issue. Because neither the Justice Department nor virtually any local or state entitities collect data on police shootings regarding the mentally ill, it is difficult to analyze the circumstances of these kinds of shootings without relying heavily on news reports .... http://www.alternet.org